Adhering to a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grain bread, nuts, olive oil and canola oil may help you live longer, a new study has found.

The findings, published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, suggest that those who closely follow an anti-inflammatory diet have an 18 per cent lower risk of all-cause mortality.

The researchers also found that those who follow the diet experience a 20 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular mortality, and a 13 per cent lower risk of cancer mortality, when compared with those who followed the diet to a lesser degree.

"Our dose-response analysis showed that even partial adherence to the anti-inflammatory diet may provide a health benefit," said lead author Joanna Kaluza, Associate Professor at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Poland.

It was also found that smokers who followed the diet experienced even greater benefits when compared with smokers who did not follow the diet, the team said.

For the study, the research team involved 68,273 Swedish men and women aged between 45 and 83 years. The participants were followed for 16 years.

The anti-inflammatory potential of the diet was estimated using the validated anti-inflammatory diet index (AIDI), which includes 11 potential anti-inflammatory and five potential pro-inflammatory foods.

Anti-inflammatory foods consist of fruits and vegetables, tea, coffee, whole grain bread, breakfast cereal, low-fat cheese, olive oil and canola oil, nuts, chocolate, and moderate amounts of red wine and beer.

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Pro-inflammatory foods include unprocessed and processed red meat, organ meats, chips, and soft-drink beverages, the team said. (IANS)